House Tour Part II

Welcome to our guest room! Won't you drop by and stay for a while?

The Bee Charmer and her little Beans really love company and if you drop by to stay with us, odds are we'll put you up in the "official" guest room. I really like how this room came out. I think everyone has a room where all of their mismatched furniture goes to live and more often than not, its your poor little guest room. The Bee Charmer is no exception. With the exception of the bed, all of the furniture here was either inherited or handed down. The cedar chest and the dresser are from my Grandmother and the side tables came from Mom. But somehow, when thrown all together and combined with a couple of really cool mercury glass Crate and Barrel lamps (which we scored on Craigslist) it works and doesn't feel like a mismash.

I am particularly happy with the dresser in this room. When Grandmother died, this was the only piece of furniture in her house that NOBODY else wanted and my father asked me to take it - I think because he felt sorry for it. And to be fair, it was pretty pitiful. It's mirror was attached to it's back and it had the ugliest Early American hardware on it that you have ever seen.

But it's lines were good. So we unhooked the mirror and hung it on the wall, shined it up with a little Pledge, switched out the ugly hardware for $35 worth of sleek brushed nickel pulls and it looked like a whole new piece. In fact, my Dad didn't even recognize it!
While we're in this part of the house, I'll go ahead and show you the hall and landing outside of the bedrooms. It's not all that exciting but I am really happy with the art on the wall outside of the guest room. While on a family trip in Charleston, South Carolina this summer I picked up a few postcards featuring the Charleston iron work. When I got back to Charlotte, I took my little post cards to my framer, along with some frames I had picked up long ago at the Pottery Barn outlet. A few bucks later, we had beautiful pictures framed in snazzy lavender mats. It turned out to be unexpectedly fabulous because the lavender mats are neutral enough to be neutral but unexpected enough to stand out in the best way. Remember, no decision is too small when you're talking about your beautiful house!

Stay tuned, later this week we're going downstairs. Next up: the Black and White dining room that still has my Dad completely bumfuzzled.